But What Is It All For, Damien?

You see atheistic Satanism, these local autonomous communities, and the United Aspects of Satan, but wonder what it is all about. With the exception of myself, no connection can be ascertained from a mere cursory examination. One must dig deeper, or alternatively, listen to my explanation.

People are rightly wary when they hear of new organizations. Self-serving cults spring up all over, all the time. The nasty C word has been hurled at me a few times. With an “L”, not an “N”, silly. All right, yes, that one too, but you know what I mean.

Things like critical thinking, individualism, skepticism, and self-leadership are at the very core of my teachings. Mindless automatons blindly marching in my footsteps are neither desired nor tolerated. Such people are sought out by the unethical and narcissistic, to stroke the ego and stuff the wallet.

I prefer individualists who happen to have converging goals and interests. There’s no following on this Left-Hand Path. One simply walks along, as one desires, but looks around and notices those who happen to be on the same path. Rather than anyone following, or going out of their way, they all simply go where they will, communing with their neighbors along the way.

With the things I teach, I would be the worst cult leader ever, as would any proper Satanist. The cult of critical thinking, seems much like the submarine with screen doors or the solar powered flashlight.

Atheistic Satanism is an entity named after a category of religion. This centralized organization consists of a website, a social network, and a facebook page and group. It’s more generic, and draws a wider audience. Rather than an echo chamber, it seeks to compare similar, but distinctly different points of view.

This generic nature facilitates sharing and exploring different views from various individuals. It seeks a harmonious balance of compatible similarity and contrasting heterogeneity.

The UAoS (United Aspects of Satan), is a specific religious organization. It is based on the foundational text, “The Satanic Narratives: A Modern Satanic Bible”. The religion, philosophy, and worldview detailed within that book is represented by the UAoS.

Being that the UAoS represents my specific point of view, it exists only online, as one centralized unit. There may be temporary logical divisions that are fluid, dynamically forming based on activity. However, it is a single organization with no geographically restricted chapters.

This is of course in contrast to atheistic Satanism, which is much more generic in nature. This lack of specificity allows for the creation of autonomous communities. These communities or chapters are able to operate as separate organizations. The community organizers, or chapter leaders are vetted to make sure they are sufficiently compatible in viewpoint and outlook. Once this is done, there is virtually no oversight on my part. The organizer is granted authority to operate the community as an independent organization.

They are united under the centralized entity as represented by its online presence, for the purpose of finding other Satanists in the same area. The organizers also form a group, which allows for support, the sharing of ideas, and additional purposes as needed.

So they have the centralized support, and the name recognition, but without giving up the autonomy of the community. This gets around the pitfalls of chapters and grottoes. Without the problematic qualities of central authority, hegemony, and hierarchy, the communities are able to thrive.

These autonomous communities, with their innovative solution to the long standing problems of such groups, are then able to act in ways which are meaningful to each individual community. There is a local focus, and it’s completely customizable. For what works in one city, may not work in another. The concerns of each community may be as different as the cultures and geological features of the different areas. Yet at the same time, they are not without support.

All of these can be combined to form a complete and fully functional implementation of Satanism. One can also take what one wants, and leave the rest. With complexity, comes additional features, functionality, and customization. So it not only avoids the problems usually inherent in such things, but does so contextualized in the individualism at the core of a Satanist.

With this knowledge, you now know what it is, and what it is all for—but only from the perspective of objective reality. Your customizations allow you to have something truly unique from the perspective of your individual subjective experience. Therefore one must look within to comprehend this in its totality.